. >>> wednesday, president obama and mitt romney meet in the first presidential debate. the news hours jim lehr moderates. watch and engage with c-span including the live debate preview at 7 p.m. eastern, debate at 9, and post debate, calls, reactions, e-mails, and tweets. follow our coverage on c-span, c-span radio, and online at c-span.org. now on booktv, peter takes about why our economy produces great wealth and great poverty at the same time. he offers suggestions on how to improve the conditions on tens of millions of americans living below the poverty line. this is about 50 minutes. >> well, thank you so much, debra. i am totally delighted to be here and thanks to busboys and poets for allowing me to be here, to talk with you, and, of course, thanks to all of you for coming. i see a lot of -- a lot of friends, some of my students are here. they already got their grades so no -- [laughter] nobody was threatened. this is -- we could spend a lot of time talking about how bad things are now, but we all know. it's a terrible time for a lot of reasons, and especially fo